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The women at HJMT are amazing people. I have known all of them for more than three years and some I even know for 10 years.  During those 10 years, so much has happened both personally and professionally to us.

This year, two of my staff members are getting married — Lori Alexy and Ellen Heydt (but not to each other!).  Lori’s wedding is in August and hopefully, Ellen’s wedding will be in December, if she wins the KJOY Dream Wedding.

The KJOY Dream Wedding would be held at the beautiful Garden City Hotel. If Ellen wins this wedding, she could invite up to 100 guests.  She would receive a wedding dress and her fiance would get his tuxedo. They are even providing a limo! In addition to that, flowers would be provided, the band and anything else you can think of to make that special day perfect!

Speaking for my whole staff, I would love to see her win.  This would be such a big help for her and her fiance.  It will enable them to start a life without having to worry about anything!

Please consider voting for her at http://www.kjoy.com/pages/9452203.php.  You can vote for her as many times as you like!  Vote couple #3 – Ellen and Ed.

Let’s send them off in first class!  Thanks everyone!

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Last week I celebrated my birthday. It was a great day and a lot of people helped to make it extra special. In addition to all the gifts from my family and my closest friends, I also received 128 Facebook messages. That’s right 128. WOW.

I have to be honest, I felt very loved and very popular. It reminded me of being in Junior High. Not sure if this was tradition everywhere, but in my Junior High School,  it was customary that on your birthday your friends would decorate your locker and give you balloons to carry around throughout the day.

While it was a really nice way to stand out on your birthday and it made you feel really special (yes I was born in March so I’m an Aries and I never mind extra attention), it was also nerve wracking.

The entire morning on the way to school, I thought, what if everyone forgot, what if no one cares about me enough, what if my friends got sick, what if I don’t have a decorated locker?  Not having a decorated locker would have been tragic!

Today it seems like your Facebook wall has become your Junior High Locker and this year, thankfully tragedy was averted, I felt especially popular.

Another thing that all the Facebook attention did, was remind me of how different we communicate today. I also got a birthday email from a client. He asked me if it was the only email I got and actually, it was. I thought about how just three years ago, I would have gotten tons of emails, however today, no one sends emails. They post a greeting on your wall.

I know it is crazy, but is it safe to say that emails are on their way to becoming old fashioned? I wonder. I also wonder how many Facebook birthday greetings I will get next year….

Time Accountability Hiring

When you are hiring new employees, ask candidates about their time management abilities. The best employees are those that can prioritize their work and handle interruptions, so be sure to ask relevant questions to probe in those areas so that you hire somebody who has those skills.

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TIPS provided by Time Management expert Stephen Davies. You can see more TIPS and articles on his website www.timemanagementedge.com and his Facebook page It’s TIME to Manage

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The night that I arrived in Rochester, the organizers of RocTwestival were holding their annual tweet up to raise money for a charity.

The last two years, HJMT Communications, LLC has been a sponsor of the event, but unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend.

Lisa Gordon, who runs our Rochester office, attended and was impressed with the event.

This year, it was held at a bar called, Easy on East.  The money that they raised went to benefit the YWCA of Rochester.  (In past years, it went toward Charity: Water.)

When Lisa and I walked in, there were already a hundred people there. We were greeted by one of our business associates and proceeded to walk around.  I was most interested in meeting the folks from the Social Media Club of Rochester.  I knew they had a pretty strong chapter and was interested in talking with the organizers.

I went up to people who looked a little older than the rest of the crowd and asked, “are you a member of the Social Media Club?”

They looked at me, shook their head and said that they were only there to support their children who were organizing the event.

So I went up to younger people ands asked them.  Most told me that they weren’t members but they attended the events from time to time.

In the process of meeting all these people, I met some really fascinating people like the chief blogger for Kodak, a woman who runs the Kodak community, an RIT professor who teaches social media, web developers, IT people and even people who make apps.  It was a great networking opportunity in a fun space.

“Over there,” Lisa said to me, “that’s one of the founders of the Social Media Club of Rochester.”

I quickly went over to her.  She was in a conversation with someone else but I interrupted.  I was eager to talk to her about how she runs her group and try to get tips on building the Long Island chapter.

“Hi, I’m Hilary and I’m the President and Founder of the Social Media Club of Long Island,” I said.  ”I would love to find out how you run meetings and how you build up the club.”

She laughed.  ”We hold our meetings once a month in a bar,” she said. “Our members drink, tweet, network and just have a good time. There is no educational component.”

I walked away a little disappointed. Then I realized that for some, it’s about the moment and for others it’s about what you learn to grow.  And then again I thought, maybe it’s a mixture of both the moment and the growth.